The Bottiglieri family have won their latest legal battle with a Greek-Italian rival over the future of Italian bulker and tanker owner Giuseppe Bottiglieri Shipping Co (GBSC).

A court in Italy has rejected an appeal launched by Lighthouse, a joint venture formed by Petros Pappas-led Oceanbulk Maritime and Raffaele Zagari-led Augustea Holdings.

Lighthouse made the legal move in February after a court blocked its earlier bid to win creditor support for an alternative restructuring plan for GBSC.

GBSC said the final hearing on 13 June was followed by a ruling on 4 July in which the court in Naples rejected the appeal launched by Lighthouse and a “dissenting bank”. The court also validated the plan preferred by the Bottiglieri family and its private equity partner Bain Capital Credit.

The company said the court made “a final declaration of inadmissibility of the competing proposal by Lighthouse,” adding that the court had issued an order approving its agreement with creditors “bringing to a conclusion this complex episode”.

Sources close to Lighthouse suggested after the ruling that the company may appeal to the Supreme Court of Italy, or Cassazione.

But that would be a lengthy process that is unlikely to prevent the Bottiglieri family and Bain from proceeding with the restructuring.

That Bain/Bottiglieri plan was first approved by creditors on 26 February when a Naples court rejected an attempt by Lighthouse to stop creditors meeting and suspend the voting process.

Lighthouse argued that lenders seeking to recover nearly $400m of GBSC debt would support its bid, which envisaged an injection of working capital in GBSC and the gradual sale of the company’s fleet of 11 post-panamax bulkers, a capesize and four product tankers over a 10-year period.

That led Bottiglieri and Bain to sweeten their offer in February, increasing total receivables to the banks to $205m from $166m in their initial proposal.

GBSC said its proposal offers “a concrete solution to a crisis generated by the freight market of recent years, which indiscriminately hit all operator in the sector.”

“The trust of foreign investors in the company’s ability to pay and in the competence of GBSC’s management are elements that characterize the plan,” the company said.

Lighthouse was unavailable for comment.